Offices Held

Biography

Lynne’s return to Parliament for Stamford is not entirely explained by his being seated at Southwick some ten miles away. Some intervention, or at least acquiescence, on the part of Lord Burghley must be assumed, but the connexion has not been traced. Only a few scattered facts about Lynne are known: his property was originally monastic and in 1547 he was making profitable exchanges with Sir Thomas Brudenell to round off his estates; he attended the funeral of Mary Queen of Scots at Peterborough cathedral in August 1587, and he gave £50 towards the Armada fund. Against his name on an October 1587 list of j.p.s appears ‘an ancient justice, but yet thought through age, to be easily overruled’.

Lynne’s religious views are obscure. His will contains a Latin preamble and speaks of ‘the feast of the Annunciation of Our Lady the Virgin’. This, from a younger man, in the prevailing religious opinion of 1593, would indicate, at the least, conservative views, but the bishop’s report of 1564 had called him an ‘earnest furtherer of religion’ and among the ‘well-beloved kinsmen and friends’ he appointed to supervise the will was the radical puritan Job Throckmorton into whose family his daughter had married. Other supervisors of Lynne’s will (which was made 21 Feb. 1593 and proved 10 May following) were from his own county: Edward Montagu of Hemington and Edward Dudley of Clapton. Lynne’s wife Mary was to have an annuity of £20, and ‘her meat and drink, fire and candle’ while she continued to live with the eldest son George, or £5 extra annuity if she were to live elsewhere. Provision was made for two younger sons, Humphrey and Edward, and a married daughter, Frances Montgomery. George was executor and principal legatee. Lynne was buried at Southwick 30 Mar. 1593.